Omaha daily bee., 1887-09-25
great power for good, Odd Fellowship

| great power for good, Odd Fellowship
| has become.
Odd Fellowship was instituted in Mas.
| sachusetts March 90, 1920 by the organ
| ization of the Massachusetts lodge in Bos-
ton. 1t worked for a time under the
authority of the old union order of
England, but in 1925 it accepted char
ter from the grand lodge of Maryland
and of the United States.
The first Pennsylvania lodge. which
took the name OF the state, wds organized
in Philadelphia, December 26 1891. Two
of the grand lodge of Maryland and of
| the United States. On the fourth of
June, 1923, the grand lodge of Maryland
and of the United States issued q charter
to the
] GRAND LODGE OF NEW YORK,
to which in time the self.instituted lodges
of that state became subordinate.
The grand lodge of Pennsylvania was
chartered by the grand lodge of Mary.
June. 1898, and was opened June 81. In
1899 there were ten subordinate lodges in
| Pennsylvania, with total membership
| of 1000.
] November 10, 1897, the first lodge of
| Odd Fellows in the District of Columbia
was chartered under the name of Central
lodge No. l. About year later George
Georgetown. September %. 1923, "a char
ter was issued to grand lodge to meet
inWashington and exercise authority of
the District of Columbia.
DIR. Shaffner, in his work upon Odd
Fellowship, speaking of the order rs
originally established in England, says:
ut was the practice then to have the
MEETINGS IN TATERNs,
and the proprietor became the
host and furnished the beer and
tobacco, which were freely used.
in hand. He kept order. but all present
were at liberty to engage in conversation
| until the gavel called for silence, that
they might hear some remarks from
brother of, f,an0tber, club, who CHANGED to
be present. They usually took collec-
ton for any brother on n tramp. This
custom originated with clubs organ
lied in the interest of trades. On the
continent any artisan was compelled to
| work as an apprentice for term of
seven years, and he was not permitted 10
work in one place more than two years.
At certain times he started on his tramp
from one village to another. He seldom
had more money than enough to pay his
expenses. Brothers thus travelling from
place to place in England frequently re-
ceived temporary assistance from the
lodges while under the working head of
propositions of harmony" which meant
a state of recess for the use of the mug
and the long pipe. The earlier lodges in
this country practiced the same style of
conducting their proceedings and when
the question was asked of the host by the
noble grand, SIS there any tramp in
waiting?' if answered in the affirmative,
the warden quickly made his rounds
with his broad axe for receiving the con-
tributions.
The English people as they came to
this country naturally brought their hab-
and most venerated of those habits was
the drinking of ale and beer.
The original Odd Fellows lodge in
Baltimore was organized by Englishmen.
The membership of the other lodges or
ganiZed soon afterwards were naturally
mostly English. Hence
THD CONvIvIAL FEATRRE
of early Odd Fellowship in Eng.
land necessarily appeared in those early
lodges. Beer drinking became not
unimportant part of their proceedings.
And il is said that rs the association be-
came eAmerican;zed the change was from
beer, not to water, but to those stronger
liquors that have ever constituted the
national beverages. The inebriating
products of corn and rye began to sue.
ceed the enlvenlng malt beverages, And
as MIR. Ridgley puts it, t,''What was before
comparatively an innocent indulgence
became a serious and growing evil But
IN time the proportion of native born
members became so great that they be-
gan to seek to impress upon the order
the moral habits of their country ana To-
cality. But the old custom was not eas.
ily abolished. The first direct vigorous
of ~ hu nm
named Augustus Mathiot, in 1923 or 1924
He had been rejected on application for
membership in another society, ION the
sole ground that he was a member of
that Bacchanalian club Of Odd Fellows"
While his Indignation was by this
aroused against the other order, his at.
tentiOn was the more seriously directed
to the faults of his own favorite associa-
ton. He soon introduced into his lodge,
the original Washington lodge of Balti-
more, resolution that this lodge will
hereafter abolish the use of liquor of any
kind in the lodge room" 1t was
%6s,S adopted Rn, promptly conrSd and unan,s
not Immediately enforced. 1t was. how
ever, a beginning, and in all genuine re-
forms the beginning is everything. Mr..
Mathiot's crusade was called the Mary
land REFORM" and is regarded as the be-
ginning of A great moral change in the
order. 1t encountered much opposition
from ''the host" the keeper of the house
at which the lodge meetings were held.
That individual regarded the selling of
beer and other drinks as one of his vested
privileges. and his claim had, up to that
time, been sacredly respected by the
order. In the first days the place of meet
ing could not be moved to the injury of
the host. The original charter from the
Duke of York lodge to Washington lodge
contained the provision THAT the
said lodge be not removed from
the house of Brother Thomas
Woodward so long as five brothers are
agreeable TO hold the same" This,
however, was changed so that when upon
reorganization the dispensaton was
granted by the grand lodge of MARYLAND
to Washington lodge IT was made to
read ITO establish lodge in any con.
venient place, to be hailed by the utle at
the Washington lodge, No. l." Through